Martin-Luther- Universität Halle- Wittenberg
Fachbereich Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaften
Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik
Wissenschaftliche Seminararbeit
Zum Proseminar „African American Cultural Studies”
2. Fachsemester

Black Masculinity:
Black Male Americans’ ′Same-Gender-Loving′

von: Liane Ryll

Table of Contents

1. Introduction  3

2. The Gay Movement: A Historical Background  4

3. Dual Identities in Conflict: Black versus Gay 7

3.1. Sexual- Identity and Same- Sex Behaviour 7
3.2. “Triangularity”- Being Accepted as an American in the Black and in the Gay Community 8

4. “Same-Gender-Loving” and AIDS – “Same –Gender-Loving” Black Americans as Scapegoats  12

5. Supporting “Same-Gender-Loving” Black Americans – Empowerment Organisations  13

6.Conclusion 16

7. References and cited works  17

1. Introduction

Concerning the topic of masculinity the first and maybe the most important question is: What is masculinity? – Defined as “the quality of being masculine,”1 which means “having the qualities or appearance considered to be typical of men; connected with or like men,”2 the term “Black Masculinity” refers to “the qualities of being masculine and black.” This definition sounds very logical at first sight. Moreover, when using this term as normative standard, “the asymmetrical pendant to the more critically investigated femininity,”3 and therefore inventing fictional characters enacting or rejecting stereotypes of masculinity, it serves a certain order and makes life and abstract understanding easier. But if you reflect on the analysis of masculinity which should not be limited to “typical male behaviour and sexuality” and which should not only be a matter of individual identity but the organisation and representation of the social, these formal definitions are too easy. Therefore masculinity in a wider sense is understood as a form of identity of men that cannot be isolated from other dimensions of identity. Social conditions of manliness and equality are always connected with issues of race, class, gender and sexuality.

Especially within the ideological structure of a patriarchal culture, heterosexual masculinity has traditionally been structured as the normative gender. Therefore patriarchal culture has a simple interpretation of gay men: “They lack masculinity,”4 which is reinforced by the statement: “If someone is attracted to the masculine, then that person must be feminine.”5 These beliefs create a dilemma about masculinity for men who are attracted to other men, that means homosexual white men, but also black men, if you think of living in a multicultural society and consider the colour of skin.

This paper about “Black Masculinity” and “Black Male Americans’ “Same –Gender- Loving” is intended to understand that there cannot be any discrete models for different masculinities. The situation of “Same-Gender- Loving” black male Americans and their problems of selfidentity, same-sex behaviour and a certain feeling of “triangularity6”as a result of the conflict of being black, gay and American will be discussed. Furthermore it explain the historical background referring to the gay movement, the problem of AIDS and the support by empowerment organisations that provide useful information in order to reveal the “category of masculinity as always ambivalent, always complicated, always dependent on the exigencies of personal and institutional power- an interplay of emotional and intellectual factors also mediated by sexuality and race.”7

2. The Gay Movement: A Historical Background

[...]

1 Sally Wehmeier/ A S Hornby (1999), Oxford Advanced Learner´s Dictionary Sixth Edition (Oxford University Press), p.786.

2 Ibid.

3Maurice Berger et al. (1995), Constructing Masculinity (New York & London: Routledge) p. 2 f.

4R.W. Connell (1995), Masculinities (Cambridge. Cambridge Polity Press, p. 143.

5 Ibid, p. 143.

6 Triangularity was mention in the article “Black like me” on the website of Blackstripe as a description for being black, gay and American.

7 Berger et al, Constructing Masculinity, p. 6.